Post Up: Finally the Games 6.11

The story this week was the arrival of the World Cup in Seattle. Crowds were heavy in Pioneer Square, a flag was raised atop the Space Needle, and best news of all, northbound lanes of I-5 across the ship canal bridge reopened for the duration. After all the hype and controversy, will the games themselves transcend the process of getting to here?

Following the Data

The City Council this week voted unanimously for a one-year moratorium on big new data centers — “this is Seattle’s position on AI,” one member said (GeekWire). Amazon answered the timing with a claim that its data centers are seven times more water-efficient than rivals’ (GeekWire). Meanwhile former AWS chief Adam Selipsky surfaced to run a new $10 billion AI data-center venture, and a Seattle startup raised $54 million to tap deep-sea volcanic power for the compute the moratorium is meant to restrain (GeekWire).

Rules are Rules?

Publicola found that the city switched on its World Cup surveillance cameras before finishing the privacy rules meant to govern them. The county auditor concluded the Regional Homelessness Authority’s corrective-action plan doesn’t take its own audit seriously (Publicola) — so the mayor and county executive moved to install their own oversight and embed a consultant inside the agency (The Seattle Times; Publicola). And Snohomish County became the first in the state to drop the “Housing First” funding preference, suggesting a dissolving consensus for the politics of homelessness (Lynnwood Times).

World Cupping

Keeping the matches safe will take hundreds of officers (The Seattle Times). With safety uppermost in mind, the city moved to close streets and seize guns from traffickers along Aurora after a fatal shooting — as the world arrives (The Seattle Times). And in hopes of keeping crowds moving through the city, Lime staged 15,000 bikes and scooters for the surge (GeekWire). Pacific Place, the underused downtown mall, was transformed into “Soccer House” (Seattle Times). Meanwhile, the city’s queer communities, never waiting to be invited, made their own space in it (Seattle Gay News).

Crocodile Wrestling

The Crocodile’s security staff — at the Belltown club that has been a Seattle music fixture since the grunge years — voted to organize right after the venue changed hands again (The Stranger).

Sources

We monitored 32 Pacific Northwest publications for this report.

Major regional outlets

1. The Seattle Times — the Northwest’s paper of record.
2. GeekWire — tech and business with national reach and deep Seattle roots.
3. KUOW — the region’s leading public-radio newsroom.
4. Cascade PBS / Crosscut — nonprofit, coverage of politics, policy, and culture.
5. KNKX — public radio (NPR news plus jazz).
6. The Stranger — politics, music, film, and culture with a point of view.
7. MyNorthwest — KIRO Newsradio’s site.
8. Seattle Met — dining, arts, and culture.
9. The News-Tribune — Tacoma’s paper of record.

Civic, policy & community publications

10. The Urbanist — land use, housing, and transit policy; influential well beyond its size.
11. Publicola — Erica C. Barnett
12. The Burner — Hannah Krieg
13. Post Alley
14. HeraldNet — Everett’s Daily Herald; the paper of record for Snohomish County.
15. Seattle Transit Blog — transit operations and planning.
16. Seattle Bike Blog — streets, cycling, and traffic-safety.
17. Washington Observer — Washington political news.
18. Salish Current — Bellingham
19. Cascadia — Bellingham
20. Rainshadow — Port Townsend
21. The Seattle Medium — the largest Black-owned newspaper in the Pacific Northwest.
22. Converge Media — Black and urban community culture and journalism.
23. Seattle Gay News — LGBTQ community paper, publishing for 45+ years.
24. South Seattle Emerald — For the community. By the community. In the community.
25. West Seattle Blog — among the most respected neighborhood news sites in the country.
26. Capitol Hill Seattle — community news for the Capitol Hill.
27. Westside Seattle — Robinson Newspapers (Ballard, West Seattle, White Center).
28. Bellevue Reporter — Eastside coverage.
29. B-Town Blog — Burien and the south end.
30. Lynnwood Times — Lynnwood and south Snohomish County.
31. The JOLT — Olympia and Thurston County.
32. Jefferson County Beacon

We aren’t collecting from publications with hard paywalls.